Bon Appetit!

I have been trying for days to post Christmas pictures but either my computer or blogger is being stupid. I'll keep trying!

On another topic, I've been reading this book through the Real Simple Book Club:



It is Julia Child's memoirs of her life in France with her husband and how she got started in cooking. I also saw Julie and Julia back in September and absolutely loved it. For one, Meryl Streep...need I say more? The other reason and the reason I am loving this book...the food. I am a foodie. I have recently discovered this about myself and find it so funny.

Clue #1: The things I love most about the movie and this book are the food. Here she is describing the beautiful French countryside (which makes me think of my sister-in-law) and I'm drooling over the next paragraph where she describes, in detail, the amazing lunch they had.

Clue #2: The thing I miss most about having cable is The Food Network. Giada, Ina, Paula, & Bobby...oh to see them create food again.

Clue #3: Whenever I travel or dream of traveling I always put the food on the top of the list. In New York City I love finding new restaurants and would hop from one to another all day. When I dream of traveling to Italy I don't dream of architecture or shopping, I dream of eating my way through the country. The other day I was saying how I wanted to go back to Maine...for no other reason than to have those amazing garlic-infused olives and Sangria!



I am a foodie!! I love that at almost 30 years of age I am discovering new things about myself. It gives me hope that in the midst of this small-child mothering phase that there is life and things yet to discover. And the funny thing is that I always thought I hated to cook. When we were first married I was not into it at all. But in the last couple of years I have started getting excited about trying new things. But to be brutally honest, you won't find me dancing a jig when I come home from work and have to cook another boring batch of spaghetti or something. It's trying the new stuff that gets me jittery inside. I'm all about kitchen gadgets (I must get a tart pan now because there are always tarts I want to try) and cookbooks. My new obsession is The Pioneer Woman and I must have her cookbook. Have you read her blog? She cracks me up. I sit here and giggle when I read her stuff and Matt just rolls his eyes at me. I think what I love most about her is that what she cooks is simple. She lives in a small town (actually she lives on a ranch) where you can't buy fancy ingredients so she creates amazing food out of normal, everyday, poor-people food. Cause let's face it. At this point in my life I can't go out and buy specialty foods and then only use it in one recipe.

And the best part about all of it...after you've cooked and created something scrumptious, you sit down with friends to consume the masterpiece, and then you linger and chat, laughing and enjoying the company. Now, due to the season of life I am in all of my dinners with friends also include all of our children. Lingering over dessert is not a reality when one is breaking up fights or wiping bums noses. It is one thing I miss about community life. There were a few times when you luckily sat at the right table for dinner and ended up staying an hour after the dining hall and kitchen were cleaned up because the conversation was so good. Dinner conversation is the best...along with coffee conversation but that is another post.

So there is my 2010 revelation. Food. Love to eat it, love to cook it. And one of these days I will fly to Italy and, starting in Parma, find all sorts of little restaurants in little towns and eat myself silly (and then drive to France to visit Evan and Allison and eat at their little restaurant!). Amen.